Music Is Required. Now.

[unixronin]

Because, y'see, there's this fine pair o'Irish lads who perform under the name of Men of Worth (though they joke that they have, in fact, become Men of Girth).  And while they're as fine a pair o'lads as ever you'll hear, I must purge teh Eeevul of das Earwürm from mah BRANE.  Because if "Roses of Prince Charlie" runs through my head one more time this morning, I may have to travel across the water mysel', find the grave o' the Pretender frae Oe'r the Water, and PISS ON IT.

I hold the Pretender more or less single-handedly responsible for setting in motion the destruction of the Highland clans and the Scouring of the Glens.  Discuss.

Comments

[rbos.livejournal.com]

is the Pretender one James Stuart by name? Spirited out of England as a child, lived as a boy under Louis XIV in France?

I'm reading Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, and it's set around the same time. A subplot just involved the assassination of a minor Duke of the clan Macdonald in revenge of the Massacre at Glencoe.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

No, it would be one Charles Stuart, aka Bonnie Prince Charlie, "the Prince Across the Water", who basically: was born and lived most of his life in Italy, decided he had a right to the combined throne of England and Scotland, came to Scotland, incited a rebellion, and marched an army to within sight of the walls of London without actually fighting a major battle. There, he lost his nerve and retreated with his army to Culloden, where it was caught and obliterated by a pursuing English army. In the "Scouring of the Glens" that followed, English troops marched from end to end of the Highlands killing anyone caught wearing Highland dress, man, woman or child, and did their best to erase the culture of the Scottish Highland clans from the face of the earth, while the Pretender first fled to the isle of Skye disguised as a washerwoman, then made his way back to Italy where he sent the rest of his life promising to return and raise a new army, then died of (iirc) consumption and cirrhosis of the liver.
The surviving Highlanders were mostly divided into two groups -- those who couldn't learn from experience and spent the rest of their lives wishing for the Return of the Prince Across the Water, and those who saw him for what he was and spent the rest of their lives bitterly cursing him for the destruction of their clans, naming him a coward and traitor to Scotland.

(This is a capsule summary from memory, and not guaranteed to be accurate in precise detail.)

[jilara.livejournal.com]

Yes, but if James Edward Stuart hadn't started it, and not only functioned as the figurehead for the first Jacobite Rebellion (1715?), his son wouldn't have had a chance. Don't tell me that his Da wasn't the motive force behind Prince Charlie's cause---sort of like James was the "stage father" setting it all up behind the scenes.

And let's not get into the Campbells...

I STILL regard this whole thing as the last hurrah of the English Civil War and the Curse of Mary Queen of Scots. (Actually, the last of the Curse of Mary played out in the Russian Revolution, but that's another story...)

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Like I said, it's a capsule summary from memory, and I'm not going into exhaustive deep detail. :)

"Campbells? Guid soup, laddie. -- Oh, ye didnae mean those Campbells?"

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

www.heatherlands.com samples on the site

www.bedlambards.com not as good as Heather, but they do play at teh same faire here.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Aye, I know Heather's work well, since the Phoenyx days. (She even kissed me once.)

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

do ye have a copy of the phoenyx CD?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Aye, I do. One of the One Thousand.
I'll burn you a copy, if you give Heather ten bucks for it next time you see her and tell her Grendel's wielder told you to. :)

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

that's a deal! e-mail me for addy at thunderfoot.olaf@gmail.com